c-^vv>^  . 


O p i j^-  ' - 


rcu-y: 

Vru^f 


THE 

TRAFFIC  IN  AND  THE  USE 

OF 

OPIUM 

IN 

OUR  OWN  AND  OTHER  COUNTRIES. 


A DOCUMENT 

BY  THE  REPRESENTATIVE  MEETING  OF  THE  YEARLY  MEETING 
OF  FRIENDS  FOR  NE\Y  ENGLAND  FOR 

1881-1882. 


rcmibcnte : 

RHODE  ISLAND  PRINTING  COMPANY,  62  WEYROSSET  STREET. 

1882. 


No.  2. 

THE  OPIUM  TPAEFIC, 

AND  ITS  USE  IN  OUE  COUNTEY. 


The  opium  traffic,  and  all  the  attendant  evils  arising  from  the  habit 
of  smoking  and  chewing,  are  so  rapidly  on  the  increase  in  the  United 
States,  that  the  Friends  of  New  England  have  believed  it  right  for  them 
to  call  the  attention  of  their  countrymen  to  the  subject. 

The  pamphlet  upon  the  subject  is  of  recent  issue,  and  is  sent  with  the 
hope  that  it  will  be  carefully  read  and  well  considered,  and  I am  willing 
to  believe  that  every  good  man,  having  the  best  interest  of  his  country  at 
heart,  will  avail  himself  of  the  information  given  to  do  what  he  can  in 
creating  a public  sentiment  against  the  use  of  opium,  unless  as  a prescribed 
medicine,  and  then  it  ought  to  be  used  with  the  utmost  care  or  a habit 
vnU  be  formed  hard  to  relinquish,  though  attended  with  lamentable  results. 

A little  more  than  one  hundred  years  ago,  the  habit  of  chevping  and 
smoking  opium  was  very  limited,  but  its  steady  growth  has  been  such, 
that  fifty  chests  of  133  1-3  pounds  each  are  now  used  where  one  was  a 
century  ago.  From  a few  Chinamen  who  ate  and  smoked  opium  in  the 
last  century,  the  number  has  increased  to  about  2.000.000. 

As  rapid  as  was  this  increase  the  evidence  is  in  favor  of  its  being 
more  rapid,  at  this  time,  in  our  own  country. 

In  1876,  228,742  pounds  were  brought  into  the  United  States,  and 
during  the  fiscal  year  ending  in  1880,  553,451  pounds  were  imported,  mak- 
ing an  increase  but  little  short  of  140  per  cent,  in  four  years. 

H.  H.  Kane  in  his  book  on  opium  smoking,  informs  us  that  the  first 
white  man  in  America  began  smoking  in  1868  and  it  is  believed  that  now 
more  than  6000  American  men  and  women  indulge  in  this  pernicious  habit. 
In  all  our  large  cities  may  be  found  opium  dens,  kept  and  patronized  by 
American-bom  citizens. 

In  this  pamphlet  from  which  these  statistics  are  taken,  more  of  like 
import  may  be  found  that  exhibits  an  alarming  growth  of  this  evil. 

The  opium  dens  in  the  chief  cities  of  New  York  are  becoming  com- 
mon and  their  patrons  are  on  the  increase,  making  the  evils  of  opium  eat- 
ing and  smoking  so  apparent  as  to  induce  a commendable  action  on  the 
part  of  the  State  to  remove  these  dens  by  legal  enactments. 

Wishing  to  put  these  pamphlets  into  the  hands  of  intelligent  men  and 
women  who  help  to  form  public  opinion,  I vdll  take  it  as  an  act  of  kind- 
ness to  receive  the  address  of  such,  with  their  profession  or  calling,  that  I 
may  send  them  a copy. 

Information  from  any  one  who  may  have  a knowledge  of  the  sad 
effect  of  opium  eating  or  smoking,  will  be  very  acceptable  to  me. 

B.  F.  KNOWLES, 

South  Manchester,  Conn. 

10th  mo.  23rd.  1882. 


THE 


TRAFFIC  IN  AND  THE  USE 


OPIUM 


OUR  OWN  AND  OTHER  COUNTRIES. 


A DOCUMENT 


BY  THE  REPRESENTATIVE  MEETING  OF  THE  YEARLY  MEETING 
OF  FRIENDS  FOR  NEW  ENGLAND  FOR 

1881-1882. 


RHODE  ISLAND  PRINTING  COMPANY,  62  WEYBOSSET  STREET. 


1882. 


OPIUM. 


The  following  is  a minute  of  the  Representative  Meeting  of  th® 
Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends  for  Now  England,  at  a meeting  of  that  body 
held  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  2nd  Mo.  1st,  1882  : 


“The  Committee  under  appointment  relative  to  the  traffic  in  and  the 
use  of  opium  in  our  own  and  foreign  countries,  presented  a report  which 
has  been  read.  The  subject  elicited  much  interest,  and  our  Committee 
is  authorized  to  prepare  the  statement  now  presented  for  the  press,  and 
to  procure  the  printing  of  5000  copies  for  public  circulation.” 


A true  copy. 


New  Bedford,  4th  Mo.  20th,  1882. 


HENRY  T.  WOOD, 

Clerk. 


We  have  published  the  statement  referred  to  in  the  foregoing 
minute  pursuant  to  the  directions  given  therein,  and  the  same  is  con- 
tained in -the  following  pages. 

On  behalf  of  the  Committee. 

AUGUSTINE  JONES, 

Chairman. 

Providence,  R.  I.,  4th  Mo.  24th,  1882. 


THE  TRAFFIC  IN  AND  THE  USE  OF 


OPIUM 

IN  OUR  OWN  AND  OTHER  COUNTRIES. 


The  attention  of  Friends  in  New  England  has  been 
recently  called  to  the  alarming  increase  in  the  use  of 
opium  in  China,  the  United  States  and  other  countries. 
Friends  in  England,  with  other  Christian  denomina- 
tions, have  for  several  years  labored  earnestly  to  arouse 
the  people  and  government  of  that  country  to  their  duty 
respecting  the  traffic  in  opium  between  British  India 
and  China. 

We  believe  that  the  time  has  fully  come  when  the 
Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends  for  New  England  should 
exert  its  influence,  not  only  for  the  encouragement  of 
those  Avho  are  engaged  in  this  philanthropic  work,  but 
also  in  the  discharge  of  its  own  duty  and  responsibility, 
as  a branch  of  the  Christian  Church. 

The  opium  poppy  is  a native  of  Persia,  and  probably 
also  of  the  south  of  Europe  and  Asia  Minor.  It  is 
largely  cultivated  in  those  countries,  and  also  in  Egypt, 
Arabia  and  British  India,  for  the  sake  of  its  opium. 

Dr.  Joseph  Hooker  thus  describes  this  process  : — 
“ The  capsules  are  sliced  in  February  and  March  with 
a little  instrument  like  a saw,  made  of  three  serrated 
plates  tied  together.  From  the  incisions  made  by  this 
instrument  the  opium  oozes  out  as  a milky  juice,  which, 
as  it  dries,  becomes  a soft,  brown,  sticky  paste  ; each 
morning  this  paste  is  scraped  off  by  means  of  small 


4 


shells,  and  collected  into  jars,  the  contents  of  which  are 
afterwards  made  into  balls  of  about  half  a pound 
weight;  these  are  often  coated  with  the  seeds  of  some 
species  of  rheum  or  rhubarb  plant.  The  balls  are 
packed  into  chests  and  exported  to  other  countries.” 

It  is  important  to  consider  first  the  opium  trade 
between  India,  China  and  the  East,  because  this  is 
largely  the  source  and  origin  of  the  traffic  elsewhere. 
Eastern  nations  generally  are  very  fond  of  opium, 
which  they  smoke  with  their  tobacco,  or  alone,  and 
take  in  the  form  of  pills.  It  is  said  to  have  greater 
intoxicating  power  over  them  than  over  the  inhabitants 
of  western  countries.  Drunkenness  is  not  a national 
vice  in  China,  they  have  no  wine — but  opium  has 
greater  attractions  for  them  than  for  any  other  people 
in  the  world,  and  on  the  testimony  of  Chinamen  them- 
selves, the  effects  of  opium  are  very  destructive  to 
health,  and  to  all  the  better  part  of  man’s  nature.  The 
Chinese  government  has  opposed  the  traffic  from  its 
inception. 

The  East  India  Company  commenced  in  1773  to 
export  opium  to  China,  the  taste  for  the  drug  increased, 
and  in  1776  the  exports  reached  1000  chests  per  annum, 
Warren  Hastings  being  at  that  time  the  highest  officer 
of  the  company  in  India. 

In  1781  he  chartered  a vessel,  for  the  purpose  of 
selling  opium  in  China,  which  was  furnished  with  can- 
non and  soldiers,  thus  beginning  the  trade  with  force 
and  violence,  as  it  has  ever  since  been  carried  on,  result- 
ing in  two  opium  wars. 

In  1820  the  number  of  chests  had  increased  to  5147, 
and  in  1833  to  20,000  annually. 

The  consumption  of  opium  has  grown  slowly  in  the 
present  century  from  2000  to  100,000  chests  yearly. 


5 


In  1834  the  business  passed  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
East  India  Company.  It  is  at  present  a traffic  which 
bears  immense  profits,  gives  great  fortunes  to  numbers 
of  merchants,  and  furnishes  the  British  Government 
with  a large  portion  of  its  Indian  revenue. 

The  Queen’s  Government  itself  is  the  producer.  It 
provides  land,  lends  money  to  the  cultivator,  receives 
and  stores  the  whole  amount  grown,  and  disposes  of  it 
by  auction  at  periodical  sales  in  Calcutta,  to  merchants 
who  export  it  to  China,  and  the  proceeds  of  the  sale 
are  paid  into  the  Imperial  Treasury,  From  a recent 
Parliamentary  Blue  Book  on  the  Progress  and  Condi- 
tion of  India,  we  learn  the  net  opium  revenue  for  1871- 
72  amounted  to  $38,286,066.  The  number  of  chests 
sold  being  88,789.  (A  chest  contains  about  ISSl 
pounds.)  This  includes  49,455  chests  produced  in 
Bengal  and  sold  in  Calcutta  at  $695  each,  the  net  profit 
on  each  being  $450  ; also  43,909  chests  produced  in' 
Malwa,  a native  state  in  Central  India,  and  exported 
from  Bombay,  paying  a tax  to  the  British  Government 
of  $300  per  chest. 

The  Inspector  General  of  the  Chinese  Maritime  Cus- 
toms calculates  that  there  are  in  China  1,000,000  smo- 
kers of  Indian  opium,  who  spend  nearly  $85,000,000 
per  annum,  and  that  all  the  smokers  of  opium  in  that 
country  would  number  at  least  2,000,000,  at  a cost  for 
opium  of  at  least  $125,000,000  annually. 

The  Archbishop  of  York  sfdd  in  a recent  speech  : — 
The  state  of  the  matter  is  this,  that  the  Christian 
nation  of  England  has  been  in  the  past  continually 
engaged  in  enforcing  an  unwilling  nation  to  purchase 
great  quantities  of  poison,  which  it  has  grown  for  them, 
and  has  not  scrupled  to  go  to  war  even  to  enforce  what 
I must  call  an  iniquitous  trade. 


6 


Now,  that  being  so,  I do  say  that  we  cannot  hold  up 
our  heads  among  the  nations  of  the  world,  if,  when 
attention  has  once  been  directed  to  this  matter,  we 
allow  it  to  slumber  and  sleep.  * * * 

It  makes  the  Queen  herself,  who  is  now  the  sovereign, 
the  Empress  of  India,  responsible  * * for 

poisoning  the  people,  for  destroying  them  physically 
and  morally,  and  for  corrupting  a whole  nation  that  is 
ready  to  protest  against  the  corruption.  * * * * 

We  say  that  it  is  a wrong  thing  from  first  to  last.  We 
say  that  it  is  a disgrace  and  a shame  to  this  country 
that  a heathen  people  should  have  to  ask  us  to  hold  our 
hands  and  not  to  force  the  opium  upon  them,  and  that 
we  as  a .Christian  people  should  refuse  to  hold  our 
hands  and  with  fire  and  sword  make  them  take  this 
deadly  drug.” — The  Friend  of  China,  vol.  5,  p.  16. 

Canon  Stowell  said  at  the  same  meeting : The  con- 
troversy is  between  the  healthy  and  generous  instincts 
of  Christian  philanthropists  and  the  special  pleading  of 
politician  and  financier,  and  he  was  sure  that  in  the 
long  run  the  former  would  prevail  as  they  did  in  the 
case  of  the  slave  trade,  by  legislation.” 

An  Anti-Opium  Society  of  Canton,  China,  makes  the 
following  statement  of  the  corruption  to  the  morals  of 
the  people  arising  from  opium  : “ From  Kieuhmg  until 
now  scarcely  a hundred  years  have  elapsed,  but  the 
deterioration  of  common  morality  has  been  incessant 
during  all  that  period.  In  out-of-the-way  places,  where 
comparatively  few  smoke,  the  virtue  of  former  times  is 
still  not  gone  entirely,  but  in  cities  and  marts  of  trade 
where  smoking  is  more  prevalent,  the  corruption  of 
morality  is  notorious.  Human  affairs  are  hastening  on 
to  one  consummation  of  falsehood  and  hypocrisy,  and 
there  is  no  turning  them  back.”  This  same  heathen 


7 


society  calls  the  attention  of  Christian  England  to  the 
teaching  of  its  own  Scriptures  in  the  following  words  : 
“ The  New  Testament  says,  ‘ Whatsoever  ye  would  that 
others  should  do  to  you,  do  you  to  them.’  Is  it  possi- 
ble that  this  instruction  of  the  Saviour  has  not  reached 
the  ears  of  your  honored  countrymen  ?” 

On  the  13th  of  9th  Mo.,  1876,  the  Chinese  Gov- 
ernment, unable  to  induce  the  Government  of  England 
to  consent  to  their  prohibition  of  the  importation  of 
opium,  attempted  to  make  a treaty  known  as  the 
“ Chefoo  Convention,”  a provision  of  which  would  im- 
pose a heavy  duty  at  the  port,  and  to  a great  extent 
prevent  smuggling  and  limit  the  quantity  imported. 

England’s  plenipotentiary  agreed,  and  the  treaty  was 
signed.  Five  years  have  elapsed,  the  Chinese  have 
fulfilled  the  provisions  of  that  treaty  on  their  part,  but 
England  has  not  ratified  it,  and  probably  will  not, 
although  she  is  morally  bound  to  do  it.  It  is  claimed 
on  the  part  of  England  that  the  Chinese  are  not  sin- 
cere in  their  protest  against  the  importation  of  opium, 
that  their  real  wish  is  to  raise  all  the  opium  in  that 
country  for  the  profit  of  home  production.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  claimed  that  the  raising  of  opium  in 
China  is  permitted  with  the  purpose,  if  possible,  of 
first  destroying  the  foreign  traffic,  and  then  its  use 
altogether.  It  is  admitted  that  China  has  been  con- 
sistent in  pressing  her  protest  against  opium  in  her 
treaties  with  all  countries  from  first  to  last.  She  has 
recently  concluded  two  treaties  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance, the  one  with  the  United  States,  the  other  with 
Russia,  and  by  both  of  these  treaties  alike  the  impor- 
tation of  opium  is  prohibited.  She  failed  to  secure  the 
like  provision  in  her  recent  Brazilian  treaty,  it  is  said, 
through  British  influence. 


8 


The  Grand  Secretary,  Li  Hung  Chang,  says : “ I 
may  take  the  opportunity  to  assert  here  once  for  all, 
that  the  single  aim  of  my  government  in  taxing  opium 
will  be  in  the  future,  as  it  has  always  been  in  the  past, 
to  repress  the  traffic,  never  the  desire  to  gain  revenue 
from  such  a source.”  He  further  says  on  another  occa- 
sion : My  government  is  impressed  with  the  necessity 
of  making  strenuous  efforts  to  control  this  flood  of  opium 
before  it  overwhelms  this  whole  country.  The  new 
treaty  with  the  United  States  containing  the  prohib- 
itory clause  against  opium  encourages  the  belief  that 
the  broad  principles  of  justice  and  feelings  of  humanity 
will  prevail  in  future  relations  between  China  and  west- 
ern nations.  My  government  will  take  effective  meas- 
ures to  enforce  the  laws  against  the  cultivation  of  the 
poppy  in  China,  and  otherwise  check  the  use  of  opium.” 

The  British  minister  at  Pekin  for  a quarter  of  a cent- 
ury, says  : ‘‘  It  is  to  me  vain  to  think  otherwise  of  the 
use  jof  the  drug  in  China  than  as  of  a habit  many  times 
more  pernicious,  nationally  speaking,  than*  the  gin  and 
whiskey  drinking  which  we  deplore  at  home.  It  takes 
possession  more  insidiously,  and  keeps  its  hold  to  the 
full  as  tenaciously.  It  has  ensured,  in  every  case 
within  my  knowledge,  the  steady  descent,  moral  and 
physical,  of  the  smoker,  and  it  is  so  far  a greater  mis- 
chief than  drink,  that  it  does  not,  by  external  evidence 
of  its  effects,  expose  its  victim  to  the  loss  of  repute, 
which  is  the  penalty  of  drunkenness.” 

Dr.  Dudgeon,  for  many  years  Medical  Missionary  at 
Pekin,  who  occupies  a chair  in  a Chinese  college  for  the 
study  of  foreign  literature  in  that  city,  says  : “ Once 

habituated  to  the  drug,  everything  will  be  endured 
rather  than  its  privation.  The  pipe  becomes  the  smo- 
ker’s very  life,  and  to  satisfy  the  inexorable  demands 


9 


of  tyrant  craving,  there  is  nothing  to  which  he  will 
not  stoop.  In  the  case  of  poverty  the  wretched  victim 
is  driven  to  the  perpetration  of  crime  in  order  to  secure 
the  pipe.  Time,  wealth,  energies,  self-respect,  self-con- 
trol, honesty,  truthfulness,  honor,  are  all  sacrificed  at 
the  dicker  of  the  opium  lamp.  This  new  constitutional 
idiosyncrasy,  or  second  nature,  demands  its  regular 
periodic  dose,  twice,  sometimes  thrice  or  four  times,  and 
in  the  case  of  old,  confirmed  smokers  an  almost  con- 
tinuous supply,  day  and  night,  without  which  the 
smoker  could  not  exist.  What  a slavery  ! none  more 
easy  to  acquire,  none  more  difficult  to  break  off !” 
The  Anti-Opium  Society,  mentioned  before,  says  : 
“ Finally,  your  countrymen  come  here  to  preach  the 
gospel,  and  their  object  is  to  make  many  converts,  and 
thus  spread  abroad  the  love  of  God  to  men.  But  their 
hearers  continually  ask,  ‘ Why  don’t  you  go  home  and 
exhort  your  own  people  not  to  sell  opium,  since  you  are 
so  bent  on  exhortation  ?’  And  it  is  impossible  for  the 
missionaries  entirely  to  slop  their  mouths.  On  this 
account  not  only  are  few  converts  made,  but  the  whole 
Christian  doctrine  is  suspected  to  be  an  imposition.” 

When  Bishop  Schereschewsky,  in  1869,  was  ex- 
pelled from  the  capital  of  Honan  province,  a mob 
followed  him  shouting,  “You  sell  poison  to  the 
people,  and  now  you  come  to  teach  us  virtue.”  The 
Bishop  of  Victoria  said,  that  again  and  again,  while 
preaching  he  has  been  stopped  with  the  question,  “Are 
you  an  Englishman  ? Is  not  that  the  country  where 
opium  comes  from  ? Go  back  and  stop  it,  and  then 
we  will  talk  about  Christianity.” 

The  opium  habit  has  been  found  by  the  missionaries, 
not  only  in  China  and  Burmah,  but  everywhere  a very 
difficult  obstruction  to  their  work,  both  in  the  prejudice 


10 


which  it  creates  against  Christianity  and  in  the  deplor- 
able condition  of  its  victims.  These  persons  can  seldom 
be  trusted  in  their  religious  professions.  Indeed,  it  is 
a proverb  in  the  East : “That  God  furnishes  a means  of 
escape  from  everything  except  the  use  of  opium.” 

The  importance  of  this  matter  to  the  missionary 
interests  in  India  appears  in  a petition  and  protest  just 
received  in  the  British  House  of  Commons,  signed  by 
338  clergy,  ministers  and  missionaries  in  India.  The  list 
includes  the  Bishop  of  Bombay  and  his  clergy,  twenty- 
two  members  of  the  Calcutta  Missionary  Conference, 
all  the  members  of  the  Bombay  Missionary  Conference, 
and  missionaries  of  all  societies  in  every  part  of  India. 

David  Hill,  one  of  the  missionaries  to  China  who 
assembled  at  Exeter  Hall,  London,  3d  Mo.  15th,  1882, 
to  tell  the  public  the  truth  about  opium,  said : “ The 
verdict  of  all  the  350  missionaries  in  China  was  unan- 
imous in  regard  to  its  ruinous  results.” 

The  section  of  the  recent  treaty  between  the  United 
States  and  China  on  this  subject  is  as  follows : “ The 
governments  of  China  and  of  the  United  States  mu- 
tually  agree  and  undertake  that  Chinese  subjects  shall 
not  be  permitted  to  import  opium  into  any  of  the  ports 
of  the  United  States,  and  citizens  of  the  United  States 
shall  not  be  permitted  to  import  opium  into  any  of  the 
open  ports  of  China,  to  transport  it  from  one  open  port 
to  any  other  open  port,  or  to  buy  or  sell  opium  in  any 
of  the  open  ports  of  China.  This  absolute  prohibition, 
which  extends  to  vessels  owned  by  citizens  or  subjects 
of  either  power,  to  foreign  vessels  employed  by  them, 
or  to  vessels  owned  by  the  citizens  or  subjects  of  either 
power  and  employed  by  other  persons  for  the  transpor- 
tation of  opium  shall  be  enforced  by  appropriate  legis- 
lation on  the  part  of  China  and  the  United  States  and 


11 


the  benefits  of  the  favored-nation  clause  in  existing 
treaties  shall  not  be  claimed  by  the  citizens  or  subjects 
of  either  power,  as  against  the  provisions  of  this  arti- 
cle.” President  Arthur  in  his  recent  message  to  Con- 
gress urges  the  enforcement  of  the  stipulations  of  the 
new  Chinese  treaty,  and  states  that  those  regarding 
the  opium  trade  will  undoubtedly  receive  the  ap- 
proval of  Congress,  thus  giving  the  moral  weight  of 
the  present  administration  on  the  side  of  justice  to 
China. 

The  following  statistics,  respecting  the  use  of  opium 
in  the  United  States,  are  from  the  bureau  of  statistics 
in  Washington  : There  were  imported  into  the  United 
States  in  1869,  90,997  pounds  of  opium,  valued  in  gold 
at  $626,802;  in  1874,  170,706  pounds,  valued  at 
$945,232;  in  1877,  230,102  pounds,  valued  in  gold  at 
$997,692. 

And  in  1869,  17,940  pounds  of  opium  for  smoking, 
valued  in  gold  at  $168,718;  in  1874,  53,343  pounds, 
valued  in  gold  at  $566,844 ; in  1877,  47,428  pounds, 
valued  in  gold  at  $602,662.  The  slight  reduction  this 
last  year  is  due  undoubtedly  to  a depression  in  business, 
but  recent  reports  show  a great  increase. 

In  1876  228,742  pounds  of  crude  opium  were  im- 
ported into  the  United  States.  This  shows  an  increase 
of  seventy  per  cent,  since  1867. 

During  the  fiscal  year  ending  6th  Mo.  30,  1880,  the 
importations  amounted  to  533,451  pounds.  Of  this 
97,000  pounds  came  from  China,  329,575  pounds  from 
England,  and  92,633  from  Turkey  in  Asia.  This  is  an 
increase  of  140  per  cent,  in  four  years.  In  1876 
3285  ounces  of  morphia  were  imported.  In  1880  the 
amount  received  in  New  York  alone  was  8822  ounces. 
In  1876  there  were  estimated  to  be  200,000  opium 


12 


eaters  in  the  United  States,  two-thirds  of  them  being 
the  well-to-do  classes — many  of  them  actors  and  literary 
persons.  The  figures  indicate  that  it  is  probable  that 
there  are  now  400,000.  They  consume  nearly  5,000,- 
000,000  grains  annually,  the  imported  value  of  which 
is  over  $2,000,000,  for  which  consumers  have  to  pay 
over  $5,000,000. 

If  opium  is  smuggled  in  large  quantities,  as  no  doubt 
it  is,  the  amount  is  to  be  increased.  A wholesale  dealer 
observes  that  much  of  the  increase  of  opium  imports  is 
absorbed  in  cigars  and  cigarettes.  The  opium  is  used 
in  a liquid  state,  the  tobacco  being  saturated’  with  a 
solution  of  greater  or  less  strength. 

A prominent  druggist  is  reported  in  the  New  York 
World  to  have  said  : “ The  increased  consumption  of 
opium  has  followed  very  closely  the  increased  use  of 
the  hypodermic  syringe.  A single  instrument  maker 
told  me  he  has  sold  enough  of  these  instruments  within 
two  years  to  supply  the  whole  profession  in  the  city.” 

The  number  of  preparations  in  which  opium  is  used 
is  annually  increasing.  It  forms  an  important  ingre- 
dient in  a number  of  quack  and  patent  medicines. 
The  wholesale  dealers  and  manufacturers  in  New  York 
report  that  it  is  increasing  there  with  alarming  rapid- 
ity, but  that  it  is  no  worse  in  that  city  than  in  other 
parts  of  the  country. 

Harpers  Weekly  of  4th  Mo.  8th,  1882,  contains  the 
statement  that  opium  smoking  has  increased  very  rap- 
idly in  that  place  within  a few  months,  and  that  the  per- 
sons who  smoke  are  not  Chinese,  but  Americans,  and  that 
the  smoking  dens  which  they  visit  are  kept  by  Ameri- 
cans and  are  made  very  attractive  by  their  costly  furni- 
ture, colored  lights  and  various  other  devices.  Albany 
consumes  annually  3500  pounds  of  opium  and  650 


13 


ounces  of  morphia,  four-fifths  of  which  is  said  to  be 
consumed  by  women.  The  vice-president  of  the  Illi- 
nois State  Temperance  League  gives  local  statistics  of 
towns  in  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio  and  Kentucky,  in  which 
there  are  from  three  to  six  opium  eaters  in  every 
hundred  of  population. 

And  it  is  reported  that  in  some  of  the  country  towns 
of  New  England  morphia  is  sold  by  the  grocers  in  large 
quantities.  It  is  a significant  fact  in  this  connection 
thatsome’of  these  towns  are  within  the  districts  where 
prohibitory  liquor  laws  have  been  most  successfully 
enforced. 

H.  H.  Kane,  in  his  book  on  opium  smoking  in  China 
and  America,  informs  us  that  the  first  white  man  in 
America  began  smoking  opium  in  1868,  the  second  in 
1871.  Now  it  is  computed  that  more  than  6000  Amer- 
ican men  and  women  smoke  it,  and  that  now  there  are 
opium  dens  in  all  the  principal  cities. 

This  cause  will  not  at  present  receive  the  attention 
it  merits.  The  world  at  large  is  not  yet  awakened  to 
the  impending  danger,  and  because  there  is  a natural 
apathy  towards  the  distant  and  unseen.  And  as  the 
watchman  on  the  wall  has  a special  trust  and  duty, 
because  he  first  discovers  the  danger,  so  the  Society  of 
Friends,  so  Christianity,  holds  a responsible  position 
where  it  may  discern  in  advance  the  approach  and  in 
part  the  extent  of  this  baneful  influence. 

The  use  of  opium  will  in  the  future  prove  a more 
serious  obstruction  to  the  progress  of  Christianity  than 
in  the  past,  for  the  habit  is  extending;  hence  it  is  high 
time  that  the  alarm  was  sounded,  and  the  whole 
Christian  world  summoned  to  its  duty.  It  may  justly 
be  questioned  whether  any  moral  cause  ever  more 
clearly  demanded  the  force  and  exercise  of  Gospel 


14 


teachings  than  the  opium  question,  with  its  wide  and 
varied  elements. 

The  hope  of  the  world  in  the  struggle  with  this  evil, 
as  with  every  other,  lies  in  Christianity,  which  is  uni- 
versal, is  no  respecter  of  persons  or  nations,  but  extends 
its  healing  hand  to  every  individual  of  the  race.  That 
was  the  true  light  which  lighteth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world.”  And  God  ‘‘hath  made  of  one 
blood  all  the  nations  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the  face 
of  the  earth.”  We,  as  Christians,  are  charged  with  the 
solemn  duty  to  teach  all  nations  whatsoever  things  He 
has  commanded  us,  and  this  injunction  requires  us  to 
restrain  our  carnal  appetites,  and  to  teach  men  so  to  do 
to  keep  the  body  in  subjection  to  the  spirit,  to  love, 
our  neighbors  as  ourselves,  to  seek  first  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven,  and  to  labor  for  the  extension  of 
that  kingdom.  Our  duty  is  beautifully  taught  by  the 
Master  himself  in  the  Parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan. 
The  Priest  and  Levite,  Church  and  State,  Hypocrisy 
and  Respectability  went  by  on  the  other  side,  while  the 
foreigner,  the  genuine  neighbor  and  true  disciple,  waiv- 
ing the  question  of  sect  and  nationality,  performed  his 
Christian  duty. 

The  government  of  England  ought  to  feel  that  the 
Christian  conviction  of  the  world,  a force  more  potent 
than  armies,  has  irrevocably  decreed  that  it  shall  do 
justice  to  China,  and  that  it  ought  to  be,  in  fact  and  in 
truth,  as  well  as  in  name,  a great  Christian  nation.  But 
England  is  not  the  only  guilty  nation,  if  she  has  been 
more  aggressive  in  this  wrong,  other  nations  have  been 
grossly  negligent  as  Christian  governments,  while  their 
citizens  have  shared  in  the  crime  and  the  spoils,  and  to 
our  shame  it  must  be  said  that  this  is  notably  true  of 
Americans.  We  think  that  an  appeal  ought  to  be 


15 


made  in  the  name  and  in  behalf  of  Christianity,  to  all 
the  civilized  governments  of  the  world,  immediately  to 
take  part  in  this  common  cause,  the  issues  of  which 
reach  all  mankind.  The  people  of  China,  Burmah  and 
elsewhere  must  be  made  to  realize  that  Christianity 
was  not  represented  in  the  violence  of  opium  wars, 
and  in  wicked  attempts  to  degrade  and  destroy  weaker 
races,  but  that  on  the  contrary  it  seeks  in  its  purity 
the  elevation  and  redemption  of  all  men.  But  this 
subject  is  brought  home  to  us  when  we  consider  that 
the  use  of  opium  is  extending  silently  but  surely  in 
our  own  midst.  That  we,  as  individuals,  are  now  ex- 
posed to  this  very  peril,  that  it  may  enter  our  own 
families  in  some  of  its  varied  forms.  The  wonderful 
and  increasing  facilities  for  inter-communication  be- 
tween remote  parts  of  the  world  have,  in  effect,  reduced 
the  size  of  the  globe,  and  we  are  brought  into  nearer 
contact  with  distant  countries  than  ever  before.  And 
this  will  probably  be  increasingly  the  case  with  the 
progress  of  ^invention,  so  that  national  life  and  charac- 
ter will  be  more  influenced  by  foreign  nations. 

Neither  China  nor  India  can  longer  be  poisoned  and 
demoralized  without  sending  the  injury  around  the 
world.  England  plants  a Upas  tree  in  China  whose 
deadly  branches  not  only  reach  America,  but  over- 
shadow herself  with  their  noxious  influence.  What- 
ever nation  pours  poison  into  the  circulation  of  the 
world’s  life  current,  may  expect  it  in  time  to  flow  back 
upon  itself  with  all  its  destructive  power.  The  law  of 
compensation  is  sure. 

Though  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowl}',  yet  they  grind  exceeding  small ; 

Though  with  patience  He  stands  waiting,  with  exactness  grinds  He  all. 

We  believe  it  to  be  our  duty,  as  a Religious  Society, 


16 


to  invite  the  co-operation  of  other  denominations  of 
Christians  in  the  formation  of  a healthy  and  well 
informed  public  opinion  on  the  evils  and  extent  of 
opium  use,  which  are  comparatively  little  understood. 
We  recognize  the  magnitude  and  intricacy  of  the  sub- 
ject, and  that  the  influence  of  a small  Christian  com- 
munity like  ours  can  do  but  little,  yet  we  believe  that 
the  duty  and  responsibility  rest  none  the  less  upon  us 
faithfully  to  do  our  small  share  in  this  great  work, 
leaving  the  results  with  Him,  who  will  bless  the 
humblest  efforts  in  His  service. 


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